Gago and Negredo will do
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 2:41PM I see Robben is once more rejecting us publicly to make everyone aware he’d be interested to leave Madrid for another Champions League club. But nobody cares about this regurgitated non-starter. The (hopefully) next piece of action to storm out of the WHL HQ will not concern our never-ending should we or shouldn’t we sign a left-winger conundrum. Harry wants a CM. And Harry might just get one, although I hope that Levy has already done the work in preparation ‘just in case’ the target(s) in question become available. And they’ve probably just have. And Levy has allegedly spent some time chatting with Madrid this summer, so we can only hope.
The big news that might have a desired effect is that Alonso is signing for Real Madrid. No player swaps. Which means that Liverpool (if you go with the whispers from La Liga and one or two other sources) rejected the chance of signing Argentine midfielder Gago and forward Negredo, who was heavily linked a while back with us (the rumour being that Spurs had in principle agreed a deal). The Anfield club preferring straight-up cash could be a blessing.
And with Toulouse pricing out Sissoko (they want a ridiculous amount for him having apparently rejected a £10M bid) the player has come and said he’s content with life in France. Could be loyalty from the Sissoko to help get the best deal for his club possible or might be a the normal brick-wall.
Whether either of the two Diarra’s are available or not, Gago is obviousl surplus to requirements with Alonso signing, having been initally offered. And Negredo, possibly stalled with a move to Spurs a month or so ago, because Madrid held back to wait and see what Liverpool wanted for their midfield maestro. Which is understandable as the Spanish giant’s priority was completing their Galactico puzzle with the final piece. And now it's done, both Negredo and Gago are up for grabs. Hopefully.
In the meantime, we are continued to be linked with Klass Jan-Huntelaar. Speculation continues that the problem isn’t the price but the wage packet the player wishes to command. Negredo is my preferred choice. He offers something different to KJH who is arguably a more silky Dutch version of young Defoe. Negredo would, I guess, be a substantial upgrade on Robbie Keane.
I guess I’m adding up on my transfer calculator, 2+2, and getting 5. But reading between the lines is all we have to go on.
But I do think, as far as the long running Madrid targets are concerned, Alonso signing today may just prove to be the catalyst.
Hopefully, benefiting us.
Reader Comments (27)
Not sure Madrid will get rid of Gago, although I struggle to see how they can accommodate him so maybe you are onto something.
Rafael van der Vaart, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Arjen Robben and Alvaro Negredo are all reportedly available.
Robben, we can forget about. vdV will probably only look at a Champs League side. So its Negredo and KJH, and we've been linked with them already, so nothing much changes.
Surely all of these centre mid rumours just prove Harry sees Modric as a left midfielder and not as a central player. Which is bad- I've always thought he's better when he's in the middle of the action. Negrado would be a good signing but I'm not too keen on Lady Gago, we've got Huddlestone and Sergeant Palacios in that position.
Would love to have Negredo at the club! Young and has a great build for a striker. He also seems to be quite aggressive on goal which is a quality we could really use. How would he do in the Prem? Liverpool took somewhat of a gamble on Torres, let's give this young lad a go! Will probably only cost us 80 mil lol
BRING HIM! COYS!!!!!!!!!!
Modric will always drift into the middle. He'll prove tricky to stop from the left wing.
Negredo is the player I want.
Robben doesnt want to come , what a relieve , he's a twat that only plays 1 out of three games because he is injury prone , he is self centered (or is it self absorbed?) , has a severe attitude problem and then some ... sorry , just can't stand the ****
Gago on the other hand i could live with , Negredo is a very unproven player and might be the next one in the long line of spurs signings with heeps of potential but no experience. We all know where these kind of signings got us in the past , but still if he comes then i hope he will develop in to a world class striker
Klaas ... he's good but seems to look down on us a bit , dunno really , if he signs i would get the impression he settled for us more then anything else
Gago would be a good shout.
I think (like most others) that we should maybe persevere with the strikers we have and strengthen the areas that actually need strengthening. Pre-season after pre-season it seems like the obvious area to improve on is left wing, yet we never seem to do anything about it. Just for once I would like to see us identify the areas which we need cover (centre back, defensive mid) and actually get players in for those positions.
I don't necessarily think left wing is a problem as Dos Santos is clearly an option, as is using Lennon there and Naughton on the right.
It'd be nice though just for once to be able to start a season without having to say to my Arsenal friends "well, the reason we lost to Hull was because all our defenders were out injured etc.." Every season there's an excuse (Carrick, Berbatov/Keane)
Maybe this season the slogan could be "3 points from one game' instead of "2 points from 8".
Man I can't wait until kick off.
Samba being linked as an alternative to Bassong.
Thoughts peeps?
I would prefer a great central midfielder. Modric will do fine on the left and if we get a left winger playing Modric , left winger and Lennon makes us very light. Is this Gago guy a strong midfielder?
Steve Bruce has been harping on about Daniel Levy being in America as the reason behind the Bent deal taking so long to complete.
Real Madrid are in America at the moment on a pre-season tour, add that to rumours (started at the beginning of the window) that we were definitely interested in a number of Real Madrid players and Sissoko's price being hiked up to £25m then it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Gago is a target. He'll want to be playing 1st team football in a world cup year and I'm sure he'd form a great partnership with Wilson in central midfield. He's not the tallest but he's a very talented footballer. He'll be behind the the 2 Diarra's at Real and Spurs could offer him an almost guaranteed staring berth.
Negredo........... I suppose it's all dependent on if we can sell Pav or Keane. I think the 2 of them have both got a point to prove after relatively poor showings last season and I feel they deserve a chance to show us what they can do. Negredo's fee is large considering he's had one good season in Spain, he was impressive at Almeria but do we have the time to bed another striker in?
In short I'd say, GAGO YES, NEGREDO NO.
Gago is awesome but can you see us landing a 23yr old Argentinian from Real Madrid? Its almost as unlikely as us landing Huntelaar.
Levy in America?
Madrid in America?
2+2= 4
As a Madrid Fan (although i hate Ronaldo!) I think Gago has got to be the Worst player to pull on a Madrid Shirt for many years, He is like a centre half in Midfiled, but without the good attributes of the centre half, Slow Ponderous, cumbersome and not particularly good at either shooting or passing...
good luck with your bid
For around 14 million Euros we can get Veloso which would be money well spent in my opinion. Very good young international defensive midfielder, can push on as an attacking midfielder when asked, play as a centre back or even left back and has a great left foot. Awesome value for money utility player the sort that Harry loves. I would put money on us trying to sign him.
Wikipedia says that Real Madrid paid 5 million Euros to buy back Negredo from Almera - who they sold him to 2 years before. Either they want him for the future, or they bought him back to sell him to some English team for a 300% profit. I think we should only buy players from the English league right now - we have gambled to much on overseas players recently. We need players that we know are going to cut it - especially if we have to pay several million for them.
Really dont need another stiker, plenty of other problems to address like centre half and midfield.
spooky ive been tracking KJH since he was with Ajax. i wanted him then. the kid is beyond the real deal (and he doesnt play like defoe either) more of a fernando torres type of all around foward. i havent seen any of Negredo. but signing Klass is truly the kind of signing that spurs need if they want to move up in the world. mate the kid has (had cant seem to find it) youtube video dedicated just to his bicycle kick goals, the video was 5 min long.
Negredo would be a good buy for the right money. I want us to offload Keane, Jenas and Bentley to Sign a decent hardman for the centre of the park (a leader) and Huntelaar or Negredo then blood the young lads. Especially Bostock, we need to play him with the seniors he's too good to leave in the reserves.
From what I've read, most Madrid fans like Gago about as much as we liked Zokora.
He's decent in Football Manager.
Tottenhamblog
Didn't you love Zokora?
Not sure about Gaga never watched him much seen Veloso a few times and would be a better option for me with Hantelaar coming if Keane or Pavs moves on add Shawcross (Stoke) and we could have something .Sell Jenas,Chimbonda,Bentley,O'hara,one of Keane or Pavs oh and the ox Thuddlestones.He is too slow by far and only works if someone can cover his many shortfalls.He is a one pony show all passing and nothing else and he has had enough time to shine plus he's keeping the younger guys back so sell these guys and get the others and bring on the start but i think there will now be very little movement at this late stage.
Sell O'Hara? Apart from Palacios, he is the only midfielder we can depend on to give a decent performance. Plus very versatile and still young - so will improve. Anyway - off subject. If we sign KJH, I'll eat my hat - to expensive. Everyone talks about Huntelaar's scoring record, and I have seen that clip of all his bicycle kicks (pretty impressive) BUT is he quick, slow, good in air, good linking to teammates, good assists, good at heading. I have not seen much him so as far as I am concerned he is no different from Pavlyuchenko until we signed him. Can some people give an honest appraisal of his positives and negatives...please?
I'm beginning to suspect we are looking at all this transfer news in the wrong way.
Do we have some type of 'business' relationship with Madrid? Us helping them out, drumming up business by having our name linked with their second-string (KJH, Robben etc) using false leaked information via the tabloids (and possibly online) along with our mouthpiece Harry informing everyone every other week that we are interested in Klaas. I know, it doesn't quite work if we are not getting something in return, but I've heard this suggested once or twice.
Thoughts?
Ok, this is a fleeting post as I'm in a big hurry.
Firstly, if this is already posted, I apologise. Just no time to read anything.
But...............I have a source, who tells me that there is an un-precedented amount of Negredo chat in the Spanish press today. And a lot of that is aimed towards us again.
His agent has also claimed to be in London talking to..........someone.
One of the papers has very close links to one Spanish club and has a good record on this.
Watch this space.
Sorry so brief. Trying not to burn dinner.
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Above posted by Crawley over at GG.
what about de la red... i know he had his health problems but that would only lower his price tag and he might be a realistic target who would be happy to play at our level.
Resident Madrid fan over at rumourwhores.com has this to say about Gago:
I don't know what to make of Gago to be honest, he seems to have a good eye for a pass and good reading of the game but he doesn't seem to be a fit for the style of football Real Madrid try to play. He passes the ball around but doesn't get forward much while the others are attempting to attack. Xabi Alonso will easily take his place in central midfield. I suppose you could say Gago is the poor man's Xabi Alonso.
"His agent has also claimed to be in London talking to..........someone." - has he really? lol.
Thought you knew better than to fall for this ITK crap Spooky.
I bet his agent is talking to someone unless he is mute (which wouldn't make him a very good agent).
And how exactly has he 'claimed' to be in London. He either is or he isn't FFS.
Bring on September 1st and the end of the perpetual bullshit storm that is Spurs in the transfer window.